In mobile communication networks, it is known to direct data traffic of a certain type (e.g. related to a specific service or application) over a corresponding bearer. In this respect, a bearer is considered to be an information transmission context or path of defined characteristics, e.g., capacity, delay and/or bit error rate. The defined characteristics of a bearer dictate how nodes handling bearer traffic prioritize and allocate resources. The establishment of a bearer having defined characteristics allows a network to ensure that a traffic flow can be provided a desired quality of service (QoS). Conventionally, bearers are used for prioritized traffic (e.g., traffic with a QoS requirement) which is provided a guaranteed bit rate (GBR). Bearers used to carry so-called “best effort” traffic, referred to as non-GBR bearers, do not have a guaranteed bit rate for transmitting the data traffic.
In the Third Generation (3G) and Fourth Generation (4G) mobile networks, the guaranteed bit rate (GBR) bearer is used to support applications requiring certain relatively high quality of service (QoS) criteria. For example, real-time voice and video telephony services require low packet delay of 100 ms or 150 ms, but can accept a certain rate of packet loss. Using the required characteristics, a GBR bearer can be defined for the real-time flows. When the system receives a GBR service request, the admission control function of the network checks available resources in the radio access network (RAN) and possibly also in core network (CN). If the available resources are enough to support the GBR service request, the service will be admitted. Otherwise, the service request will be rejected.
GBR Bearers are used to carry real time traffic in many 3G/4G Radio Access Networks. Although they may be suitable for some types of real time traffic, they are often used because there are no better alternatives. GBR bearers are suitable for traffic flows that have relatively constant bandwidth profiles because they require a dedication of bandwidth. GBR bearers are somewhat inefficient in terms of bandwidth usage for traffic flows that have high variance in bandwidth consumption. Real-time video delivery (e.g., for video calling, etc.) is one such example of a traffic flow with highly variable demands.
In the future, it is likely that there will be more demand for services that conform to stringent QoS/QoE requirements. Such services can include, for example, remote healthcare, virtual-reality, and high quality video conferencing (HD/4K/8K/3D). Therefore it is desirable to provide a network capable of efficiently supporting these and other services. For example, it is desirable to provide a network capable of supporting the maximum bit rate (MBR) of real-time video flows and provide a GBR without the need to over-provision the network.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.